Jun 1, 2026 · 6 min · 6 segments
The Elton John Impact Awards supports GLAAD for their LGBTQ advocacy that creates cultural change by working to ensure fair, accurate, and inclusive representation and creating national and local…
Hi, my name is Sarah Kate Ellis, she, her.
GLAAD is the media advocacy organization, and we're a global organization.
Since I started at GLAAD 12 years ago, there has been an enormous shift.
So just to give perspective, when I started, we hadn't won marriage equality yet.
It was still being debated by everyday Americans, and there was a case coming up to the Supreme Court.
And now, years later, we find that it's being challenged at the Supreme Court whether or not marriage should be validated.
I often say what we're experiencing now as an LGBTQ community is really, it is backlash, but I see it more as a slingshot.
I think we've made tremendous progress as a community.
Things that I couldn't have even imagined we've achieved as a community for our equal rights and our acceptance in culture.
However, this massive pullback that we're seeing right now I think as a community, it gives us the opportunity to get our bearings, fight harder, tell our stories, and get out there with music, with arts, to make sure that people understand who we are as a community.
And that is where the slingshot comes in, because then we will go forward in amazing rapid rate as a community and our acceptance and in society.
Everybody is on media and everybody is a creator of media or a perpetuator of media.
You might not put things out there, but you like them or heart them and read them.
So be part of the good of that.
Share the stories, add to the stories and correct the record where you can, where you see misinformation.
I also think find an organization that is meaningful to you and become a partner with that organization, whether it's a large organization like GLAAD who works in media or it's a local organization that is more service-oriented.
Find a place where you can contribute.
And it can be... anything from volunteering to financially contributing or both.
Even small donations make a huge difference and have a big impact at LGBTQ organizations on the front lines.
What I'm most hopeful about is, look how far we've come over the past 50 years to, we might be in a moment of setbacks, But I believe our community is so valuable.
Our community is so coordinated and so full of love that I think that our path forward is going to be so bright, especially with the younger folks in our community.
who are taking the mantle and building out and pushing out their stories, helping to correct the record, and becoming the leaders of tomorrow.
Hi, my name is Sarah Kate Ellis, she, her.
GLAAD is the media advocacy organization, and we're a global organization.
Since I started at GLAAD 12 years ago, there has been an enormous shift.
So just to give perspective, when I started, we hadn't won marriage equality yet.
It was still being debated by everyday Americans, and there was a case coming up to the Supreme Court.
And now, years later, we find that it's being challenged at the Supreme Court whether or not marriage should be validated.
I often say what we're experiencing now as an LGBTQ community is really, it is backlash, but I see it more as a slingshot.
I think we've made tremendous progress as a community.
Things that I couldn't have even imagined we've achieved as a community for our equal rights and our acceptance in culture.
However, this massive pullback that we're seeing right now I think as a community, it gives us the opportunity to get our bearings, fight harder, tell our stories, and get out there with music, with arts, to make sure that people understand who we are as a community.
And that is where the slingshot comes in, because then we will go forward in amazing rapid rate as a community and our acceptance and in society.
Everybody is on media and everybody is a creator of media or a perpetuator of media.
You might not put things out there, but you like them or heart them and read them.
So be part of the good of that.
Share the stories, add to the stories and correct the record where you can, where you see misinformation.
I also think find an organization that is meaningful to you and become a partner with that organization, whether it's a large organization like GLAAD who works in media or it's a local organization that is more service-oriented.
Find a place where you can contribute.
And it can be... anything from volunteering to financially contributing or both.
Even small donations make a huge difference and have a big impact at LGBTQ organizations on the front lines.
What I'm most hopeful about is, look how far we've come over the past 50 years to, we might be in a moment of setbacks, But I believe our community is so valuable.
Our community is so coordinated and so full of love that I think that our path forward is going to be so bright, especially with the younger folks in our community.
who are taking the mantle and building out and pushing out their stories, helping to correct the record, and becoming the leaders of tomorrow.
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